How do refugee young people get on in care?

This study focuses on the outcomes of migrant young people in care in England. It is one part of a large research project that was undertaken by The Rees Centre and researchers at the University of Bristol on the educational progress of children in care in England.

Over 2,500 refugee children are currently looked after in England, but relatively little is known about how these young people get on in care and in school. Moreover, research on how the experiences of refugee children compare to other children has been lacking.

This paper describes the care and school histories of a group of refugee children in care (N=167). It compares education outcomes and care histories to other children in care, children in the general population. It uses data from the National Pupil Database and Local Authority returns from 2013.

Findings indicate that refugee children have similar outcomes to children in care but lag behind children in the general population. A number of factors predicted Key Stage 4 points, including age at entry into care, placement type, SDQ scores, school type and attendance. Special educational needs and placement instability did not predict the outcome.

Implications for policy and practice include the need for greater multi-agency work between children’s services and schools to adequately support the needs of these young people.

The findings will be published in the near future and a link to the paper will be provided here.

Key messages are available for download and distribution here, the full article is available here. Please contact me if you would like a copy of this article.